kestrel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various small falcons belonging to the genus Falco that are distributed worldwide, especially the American kestrel and the European kestrel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A common European falcon, Falco tinnunculus, Tinnunculus alaudarius, or Cerchneis tinnunculus, of small size and reddish color. The body is 12½ inches long, the wing 9. The bird is brick-red with black arrow-heads on the back, the under parts being some shade of buff, fawn, or rufous, much spotted with black, and the head, neck, and rump being mostly bluish-gray. It inhabits parts of Asia and Africa, as well as the whole of Europe. It builds in hollow trees and in cliffs, or in nests deserted by crows, magpies, etc., and feeds on mice, small birds, and insects. The kestrel may be recognized by its habit of hovering or sustaining itself in the same place in the air by a rapid motion of the wings, always with its head to the wind (whence the names stannel and windhover). The male and female differ in color, ash-gray prevailing in the former and rusty brown in the latter. This hawk being regarded as of a mean or base kind, kestrel was formerly often used as an epithet of contempt. The term is extended to a number of species of the restricted genus Tinnunculus or Cerchneis. The American representatives are commonly known as sparrow-hawks. See cut under sparrow-hawk. Also called stannel and windhover.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various small falcons of the genus Falco that hover while hunting.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A small, slender European hawk (Falco alaudarius), allied to the sparrow hawk. Its color is reddish fawn, streaked and spotted with white and black. Also called windhover and stannel. The name is also applied to other allied species.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small Old World falcon that hovers in the air against a wind
2. n. small North American falcon